Maria from a very young age has appreciated the company of others and has a strong association between food and spending time with loved ones.
From day dot Maria was up on the bench cooking with mum, preparing dads favourite foods or sharing family moments around the table talking and connecting as a family.
It wasn’t until our oven broke down that we realised how important baking was to Maria, she asked every day when we were going to bake again.
Baking for Maria became like breathing, it was spending time with mum, being creative with her ingredients, delivering something special and full with love to her dad. Then the time spent together as a family to reflect on the hard work put in to preparing the food and spending that time together was priceless, and something Maria couldn’t live without.
Maria now 6 years old had always been very conscious of nature and animals. From a very young age had been visiting the Riccarton Bush ducks on a daily basis to feed them and then at the age of 2 we welcomed Cooper our Chocolate Lab. Maria refers to him as her brother.
Growing up in the hospitality industry Maria took a lot of pride in informing our guests that ducks really shouldn’t be eating bread. Maria took such pride in looking after the ducks. When Maria turned 5 the wonderful staff who developed and run the beautiful Farmers Market at Riccarton Bush agreed to support Maria to sell her duck food at the market.
When Maria started at school she had completed a beautiful project with her first year teacher at the time and the class made baked treats for all the puppies at the SPCA. Maria was lucky enough to deliver them. It was from these two experiences where Maria learnt how she could be a part of a community and pass on her love to others through her love of baking.
No matter the weather Maria is always up at the crack of dawn prepared no questions asked ready to be at the Farmers Market and deliver her work to those she loves, her family, her community and of course both feathered and furry friends.
Thank you for being a part of this special journey with us xx
